Who Gets Paid Most In MMA?

I’m not going to talk about the thoroughly hyped-up bout between GSP and Shields. No, that’ll be next week. Instead, I’m going to talk about the obscenely large stacks that MMA fighters make. These guys throw leather for a living, party it up like rock stars and command the adoration of female fans across the globe, Japanese girls no exception. Douches. More so because of the money they make. King of that list is Brock Lesnar.

Shame on you if you’re surprised.

ESPN Money did a study on the salaries of various athletes, not just fighters. Apparently, out of the 30 sports they examined, Lesnar was the highest paid MMA fighter in 2010.

Not bad when your career highlights include bad mouthing your wife on TV, dissing UFC sponsors and whispering sweet nothings into the ears of downed opponents.

How they calculated this blatantly undeserved salary:
Earnings = Base salary + PPV Revenue

Excluding the many sponsorships and advertisements, our man of the hour made about $5.3 million in 2010, or roughly 35 000 bottles of steroids. That’s a lot of steroids man.

That’s only for 2010. Since Lesnar consistently gets a piece of the PPV revenue, his income would easily surpass $5.3 million in coming years. These figures still don’t include the discretionary “locker room” bonuses that Dana White signs off on.

But thank goodness he still dwarfs real athletes in other sports.

You look:
Manny Pacquiao – $32 000 000; Boxing
Kobe Bryant – $24 800 000; Basketball
Peyton Manning – $15 800 000; Football
Cristiano Ronaldo – $19 500 000; Soccer

More from the report:
Lowest paying sport – Women’s bowling; $40 300
Highest paying sport – Baseball & Boxing; $32 000 000

Interestingly enough, professionals in sport eating made up to $218 500 last year. Not bad since we’d all eat the moon if it were made of ribs.

Recommended For Your Pleasure